Examining Brazilian and Argentine cinema of the last fifteen years, this volume charts the emergence of a new concern with the real, bringing together contributions from leading film scholars and critics from Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Comparing 'New Argentine Cinema" and the Brazilian 'Retomada, ' the contributors read across the boundaries between documentary and fiction and trace new modes of deploying performance and re-enactment, found footage, and the interplay between film and television and theater. They shed light on similarities between and variations in different Latin American national cinemas' filmic discourses and production contexts and map these findings onto the larger context of current film theory.

Reality Effects brings together the reflections of leading film scholars and critics from Latin America, the UK and the United States on the re-emergence of the real as a prime concern in contemporary Argentine and Brazilian film, and as a main reason for the acclaim both cinematographies have won among international audiences in recent years.